Venue News & Notes: Ballpark for A’s Is Off San Jose Ballot

San Jose, CA, Mayor Chuck Reed is withdrawing an effort to have residents vote in November on a ballot measure authorizing a ballpark for the Oakland Athletics. Reed said this week he decided to shelve the proposal after speaking with baseball and other elected officials. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig had expressed disappointment that Reed planned to go ahead with the measure even though the league hasn’t decided yet whether the team can move…

…Minnesota Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Rob Hahn is proposing an expansion of state-backed gambling to build the Minnesota Vikings football team a new home. Hahn is latching onto a hot-button issue as he contends with a better-funded opponent, public-relations executive Tom Horner, in the Aug. 10 primary. He said this week that his preferred option would be to expand TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota because it’s the least expensive. He is also looking at a new stadium on the Metrodome site in downtown Minneapolis and a new retail-entertainment complex at a to-be-determined location that could include a casino…

…It has taken more than four years to realize the dream that the Kansas City Chiefs’ late owner and founder Lamar Hunt had for his beloved Arrowhead Stadium. But, when Chiefs fans, and everyone else who passes through the portals of the New Arrowhead this season, get the opportunity to see the fruits of the 1.9 million worker-hours and 1,147 days of construction that went into the project, they’ll surely agree it was well worth the wait. The Chiefs provided a preview of the many upgrades and newly added features in the $375 million renovation of Arrowhead to members of the Kansas City-area media this week…

…EverBank and the Jacksonville Jaguars announced a five-year agreement this week for the naming rights to the team’s stadium. EverBank Field will replace the moniker of Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, which has been the name since 2007, when Alltel completed a 10-year agreement. The joint announcement was made by team owner Wayne Weaver, EverBank CEO Rob Clements, and Jacksonville, FL, City Council President Jack Webb Tuesday. “I clearly think it’s a game-changer,” Weaver said of the deal. “Today’s announcement demonstrates [EverBank’s] confidence that Jacksonville is a viable football market”…

…Edmonton, AB, councilors want nearly 140 questions answered before they make up their minds about Oilers owner Daryl Katz’s proposal for a new downtown arena. Katz appeared before council last week to be grilled about his plan, but councilors agreed to limit themselves to five minutes each for oral questions and to submit further inquiries in writing. Councilors want to know who will pay to maintain the arena, whether the city will get a hand in designing it, and how long it will take to build. They also want proof that the Edmonton Oilers aren’t making money and that the Katz Group needs public funds to pay for construction of a new arena and attached hotel and entertainment complex…

…The Meadowlands Sports Complex would be in for a huge overhaul if recommendations by a gaming, sports, and entertainment panel appointed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie come to fruition. The future could mean the sale, privatization, and reuse of the 123-acre Meadowlands Racetrack or possible lease of the facility, tax incentives to induce the completion of the Meadowlands Xanadu project, and the sale to a private owner of the Izod Center, which has already lost the Nets to Newark and now has become strictly a concert and entertainment venue. The recommendations in the report also call for a hard-line stance in straightening out the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) financial crisis by stopping state subsidies as bailouts and making the NJSEA sustain itself through using reserves and divesting itself as an operator of several venues…

…How do you keep football fans as regular visitors to stadiums when the television coverage of every play is so good? For the Giants and the Jets, the answer, perhaps surprisingly, is more and better video than people can get at home. This season, the New Meadowlands Stadium will offer fans free smartphone applications that they can glance at to see video replays, updated statistics, and live video from other games — and that will work only inside a stadium. Over the next few years, stadium officials say, the applications will provide fans with statistics on the speed of players and the ball, and fantasy games that will allow them to pick players and compete against other fans.